This invention relates to lift trucks and pertains particularly to an assembly for pivotally supporting the mast assembly on a lift truck. Such mounting arrangement is an improvement to mounting arrangements such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,571, issued Jan. 1, 1974 Murphy et al. and assigned to the assignee hereof.
While the invention of the above application solved many of the problems associated with the mounting of mast frames to lift trucks, one problem that still exists is that the carriage and the inner upright of the mast frame must be raised in order to permit the installation of the retainer pin from the front of the mast.
This means that a mechanic installing the mast must work under the carriage and forks which must be somehow propped up or supported overhead. Consequently, the present invention was developed to eliminate this obvious hazardous situation by providing a mounting arrangement which is accessible from behind the mast while the forks are on the ground.